Leaving the coolant system dry

Maty10 · Post by **Maty10** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:18 pm

Just started work on a major service on the 636 (clearances, carb balance, etc) and I've given up for the day. Carbs are off and covered but I've drained the coolant. Now I know its dangerous to leave radiators empty but does anyone have an idea just how dangerous it is. Should I consider keeping it full for the 2 or 3 days I'll be working on it?

Smitty · Post by **Smitty** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:34 pm

all depends....
if the cooling system is clean, its not a problem to leave
empty for a few days
but
if the cooling system is dirty, has crud in it
and you leave the system empty..its goes hard!
and
thats when the fun starts

why not just pour some water in for the time you
are not working on it?

hth

cheers

balanse · Post by **balanse** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:37 pm

Yeah, not very.

Left radiators dry over period of days to couple of weeks on various bikes to no ill effect.

Curious, how have you heard it is dangerous?

Maty10 · Post by **Maty10** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 5:45 pm

balanse wrote:Curious, how have you heard it is dangerous?

Can't recall the exact place, but remember hearing that radiators (especially aluminium) once exposed to air will oxidise quickly since they are not used to being exposed to much oxygen. That and the drying of crud which Smitty mentioned.

SNR · Post by **SNR** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:54 am

Yes oxidiation will happen but that is aprotective aluminium film/dust reaction to air. A couple of days/week is ok. You can put a radiator cleaner through when it's all hooked up if you want to get rid of the oxidation. Easy job then fill with the green stuff!

Maty10 wrote:
balanse wrote:Curious, how have you heard it is dangerous?
Can't recall the exact place, but remember hearing that radiators (especially aluminium) once exposed to air will oxidise quickly since they are not used to being exposed to much oxygen. That and the drying of crud which Smitty mentioned.

snr

Maty10 · Post by **Maty10** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 5:12 pm

How can it be that 6 out of 8 exhaust clearances are out? (And that cylinder that is withing tollerences is marginal). If the exhaust tollerence was the same as the inlet then they'd be closer to being right.

Sounds to me like the previous mechanic (Peter Stevens City) are tools and weren't using the right tollerences.

Oh and do the powers that be realise some of the manuals hosted are either corrupted or missing? The '00 - '02 zx6r manual was around 60mb, now its down around 3 and won't open.